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The Fifth Elephant: 08/07/15

Oh boy. Here's another book that has twice now fallen through the cracks of my reading and blogging system. First and foremost, it sat pushed in the back of the bookshelf, unseen, and therefore, unread. Then, somehow beyond my ken, it either wasn't added to my list of books I wanted to blog about, or it was somehow deleted from the list before I had a chance to review it. In fact, even more distressing for my own list keeping (a hand written list I've kept since 1987), the book failed to make it into my book diary.

But in it's own special irony, it's the perfect introduction to The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett. See it opens with a very important thing going missing — the Stone of Scone — the thing upon which the Low King sits during coronation. A replica of the Scone, kept in Ankh-Morpork, has also gone missing.

Vimes due to his marriage to Lady Sybil, has to don the tights and attend the upcoming coronation of the Low King. Vimes, ever the member of the Watch, sees things aren't as they seem.

Now I happened to read The Fifth Elephant on the heels of Raising Steam the 40th and final book of the adult Discworld books — and the sequel to this one. What that meant for me, is that I could see many of things Vimes could see (and a few he couldn't yet see).

Somewhere around the mid-point of the Discworld series, the books became more plot driven and more oriented towards social commentary. What is begun in The Fifth Elephant is finished in Raising Steam.